About me, and about my woodworking journey.

Well this is my first blogging experience here at lumber jocks. I have lurked in your forums for a number of weeks, and have decided to take the plunge. As I wrote it, this blog became more of a tribute to my father than about me, but many of us can trace our woodworking roots back to our fathers.

Well where do I start? I am coming back to woodworking as a serious hobby after a short hiatus. I had a “Man Vs. Saw” experience a few years ago. I did keep all my fingers but was injured enough to have some nerve damage. As a result enjoying work with a table saw was a bit hard to do. I kept doing home projects but I was more of a DYI’er than a woodworker for those years. Then a sad experience brought me back to woodworking.

My father was my first “shop teacher” he was the son of Polish immigrants and had me very late in life (He was 60 when i was born… Yes 60.) He was trained as a cabinet maker but when World War Two broke out it interrupted that career and when he returned from the army he ended up a gunsmith at one of New England’s many fine firearm manufacturers. But woodworking became his thing to do on a evening or weekend.

My much older brother had no real interest in anything mechanical so to his delight his very young son became his shop buddy. He taught me how to use a smoothing plane, brace and bit, use a hand saw, and even joint a board by hand. From a very early age allowing me to use all his hand tools under his supervision, and even at 8 or 9 years old i’d sneak into his workshop and work on some of my own projects.

When his health started to fail in my late teens. I took over run of the shop, and began working alone bought some tools of my own, updated the antique of a table saw to a more modern one. Then one night, when I knew I was too tired to be working, I nearly cut my thumb off on it. Luckily I went straight into it, rather than across it. A trip to the ER, seeing a hand surgeon, a few months of healing, and I was fine physically. Every time I turned that saw on, after that night, I was gripped with a fear. Not the respect for the tool fear that one needs, but an irrational one that if anything made it unsafe to use. As a result it was probably only turned on 5 or 6 times in 2 years and very little real woodworking got done.

Sadly my father became very ill, at 89 his time was running out. My mother and I, along with some wonderful hospice nurses, took it upon ourselves to keep him at home and not put him in a nursing home. I started spending a lot of time in that old little used workshop. Then one night started sharpening all his chisels, then planes, then ruined a saw or two trying to sharpen it. When he entered his last weeks I stumbled upon a used 6inch jointer and 14inch bandsaw and crammed it down there. I rushed up to tell my father about the finds and he was thrilled, those where the 2 machines he always talked about getting. We talked shop for over an hour before he fell asleep. I did not know it at the time but it would be our last conversation. He suffered another stroke the next day and only lived another week.

Since his passing I have become a woodworker again. I am working on projects, trying to relearn the skills I have forgotten, as well as learn new ones; such as hand cutting dovetails. My fear of the table saw has turned into a very healthy respect and I want to build that jointer’s workbench my father and I talked about building many years ago.

Hello and I hope your journey through this site is inspirational and educational… It has been for me.. I too lost my father before he could teach me all he knew so I have had to learn a lot of it myself… luckily there are some great people here to help..Larry

-- Drink twice... and don't bother to cut... @ lazylarrywoodworks.com.au For lovers of all things timber...

First of all it is good to have you on-board here and thanks for sharing your personal story. My father was a third generation carpenter who was always willing to share his skills and knowledge with me. But when I was younger, and far more intelligent than I am now (or at least I thought so at the time), I really couldn’t see any reason to learn how to frame or build cabinetry. But after he was gone I realized I had a latent passion for woodworking and, like Larry, had to teach myself. But in the end it is the memories that are shared that really count. I am sure your father would be proud of your accomplishments and the skills that you have developed.

I am looking forward to seeing more of your posts.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

thankyou for such a personal introduction…its people like you and stories like this that have drawn me here to this site…i love wood workers….and because i am one myself..there is one bond that brings us togeather…each of us have diffrent levels of ability and we share that with each other all the time…i would love to see any projects your father did and look forward to seeing the ones you post…welcome to lumber jocks and consider this a handshake…...your welcome to visit my shop and view my projects…they speak of the kind of woodworking i enjoy doing…and i hope to learn more..grizzman

Thank you for a wonderful story. I know many of us learned woodworking, or just how to be a DYIer, from our fathers, a gift that can never be taken away. My brother and I had no social life growing up as we were always having to spend our weekends with Dad on one project or another. I only wish I had taken it as seriously as you did. Thank you for sharing.

We have several things in common. I also took care of my father and mother so that they could spend their last days at home rather than in a nursing home. I worked with my father for many years in the construction industry and also inherited all his woodworking tools! During one of the last talks we had he told me I was a much better woodworker than he was. I also had an incident with the tablesaw where I lost part of the nail on my left pinkie, because I was too tired! Fortunately I have not suffered more than a cautionary fear of that tool since then.With part of my inheritance I was able to purchase a few more tools, among them a bandsaw and jointer!Every time I use my tools to build something I remember him and the times we spent together, whether in the shop and out. I will continue to do my best just the way he taught me.

Great and touching story. I didn’t start woodworking until I retired. By then my two sons were grown men, so even though we have done some DIY together, we haven’t done much in the shop. However, my two grandsons who are 10 and 12 years old do Christmas projects with me each year making gifts for their parents and each other. I hope they will have similar fond memories about our time together in the shop as you have about the time you spent woodworking with your father. Welcome to LJ. Looking forward to seeing your projects.

I’d like to thank all the respondents to this blog. I can tell all of you are wonderful people and I am blessed to have found such a great community. I am sure I will make many friendships with my time here.